Character and Appearance

Gregor is well known for his size, cruelty, and prowess in battle. Gregor is extremely tall (he is close to eight feet in height or 2,4 meters). He has "massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunk of small trees" [3], and a voice like stone breaking. Gregor weighs over thirty stone (420 lbs, or 190 kgs), nearly all of it muscle, making him near inhumanly strong. Gregor's strength allows him to wield a six-foot, two-handed greatsword with just one hand, giving him enormous reach while still wielding a shield. Such is the power of Gregor's strength that he has been known to hack men in half with just a single blow.[4]

In battle Gregor wears the heaviest, thickest plate armor in the Seven Kingdoms. His armor is so heavy that no ordinary man would be able to move, let alone fight effectively while wearing it,[4] making him nigh-invincible in combat. Below the plate he wears chainmail and boiled leather. He also wears a plate helm with only a narrow slit for vision, atop of which is a stone fist punching up towards the sky. Gregor carries an extremely thick oaken shield bearing the three black dogs of House Clegane on a yellow field.[4]

Gregor is known for his violence and cruelty. He is a sadistic murderer and rapist. Ser Brynden Tully compares him to a "frothing dog".[5] Despite being a dim and brutal man he has excellent warrior instincts.[4] He is solitary, never leaving his own lands except for wars or tourneys.[3]

According to his squire, Joss Stilwood, Gregor constantly suffers from extreme headaches and consumes vast quantities of milk of the poppy to try and dull the pain. The cause of these headaches is unknown, perhaps due to some condition of his gigantism, though Merrett Frey's experiences indicate that a tourney injury or head blow in battle can be debilitating.[6] This might be an explanation for Gregor's near uncontrollable temper. According to his brother, Sandor Clegane, Gregor once killed one of his own men because the soldier snored too loudly.[7]

History

Gregor's history is dark and filled with blood. As a young boy, eleven or twelve years old, he caused his brother Sandor's facial scars by holding the younger boy's face to a hot brazier as punishment for playing with a toy he had discarded. Their father spread the story that the injuries were caused by bedding that had caught fire.[8]

Four years later, Gregor was knighted by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen,[8] presumably prior to the tourney of Harrenhal.[9] Gregor is a suspected kinslayer; There are rumors that Gregor killed his father, sister, and his first two wives. His keep is said to be a grim place where servants vanish unaccountably and even the dogs are afraid to enter the halls.[3] Gregor has committed rapes and cold-blooded murders beyond count but his most infamous deed came from his service to House Lannister during Robert's Rebellion.

At the age of seventeen, Gregor was one of the first Lannister soldiers to enter King's Landing during its sack at the end of the war. He and Ser Amory Lorch scaled Maegor's Holdfast when the Lannister troops reached the Red Keep. Gregor entered the nursery of the infant Prince Aegon, son of Prince Rhaegar, and killed the baby present by dashing the boy's head against a wall. Then he raped and murdered Aegon's mother, Princess Elia, supposedly with the boy's blood and brains still on his hands.[3][10][11] The identities of the two murderers have not been publicly confirmed in the recorded history,[12] although Gregor's involvement is common knowledge at Casterly Rock.[10]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Ser Gregor takes part in the Hand's tourney. He slays Ser Hugh of the Vale in his second joust when his lance rides up and pierces the new-made knight's throat. According to Sandor Clegane, Gregor noticed the knight's gorget was not fastened properly and Gregor purposely drove his lance there.[8] He defeats Ser Balon Swann, but is finally unhorsed by Ser Loras Tyrell, who rides a mare in heat to the joust, which unnerves Gregor's stallion. Gregor falls into a rage and kills his stallion with one blow of his sword. He then attacks the unprepared Loras, and would have killed him if his brother Sandor had not intercepted him. He finally comes to his senses when King Robert I Baratheon orders him to stop.[3]

After the tourney, Gregor rides back to his keep. Upon his journey home from the tourney with seven of his men, Gregor broods on his loss. An overflowing river detours the group to a nearby alehouse, where he and his men gang rape the brewer's thirteen-year-old daughter, Layna.[13]

After the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings, Gregor joins with Tywin's host and commands the vanguard and the left flank during the battle on the Green Fork, leading by intimidation. In the first charge, his horse is killed by Karstark spearmen, but Gregor is unhurt and goes on fighting.[17] After the victory, Gregor sits with Tywin's war council at the crossroads when they receive word of Ser Jaime Lannister's capture at the Whispering Wood; the Mountain suggests the outriders' eyes be put out and given to their replacements as a warning for failure to scout the Stark movements. Tywin withdraws to Harrenhal but leaves Gregor and other raiders behind to harry the riverlands, each of them commanding three hundred cavalry.[18]

Tywin's plan to keep Gregor away is ruined when Tyrion is put on trial for the murder of King Joffrey I Baratheon and Tyrion's accuser, Queen Regent Cersei Lannister, announces that her champion will be Gregor in the event of a trial by combat. Cersei names Gregor in order to thwart Tyrion from using Bronn or anyone else to defend him in a trial by combat given Gregor's monstrous reputation.[27] This move, however, leads Elia's brother, Oberyn, on seeing a chance to fulfill House Martell's long-held desire for vengeance against her murderer, to agree to champion Tyrion in opposition.

Gregor fights in his usual style - with heavy armor, his thick oaken shield and his greatsword in one hand - but Oberyn outfights him with speed and a poisoned spear. Though most of Oberyn's attacks are deflected by Gregor's plate, Oberyn cleverly attacks the joints in the armor, and eventually wounds Gregor after the Mountain tires from chasing Oberyn. After being poisoned and crippled by numerous wounds, Gregor manages to grab hold of Oberyn and crush him to death. Before killing Oberyn, however, Gregor roars that he killed Elia and Aegon for all to hear.[4] Despite Gregor's victory, Oberyn achieves his revenge for his murdered sister as he had coated his spear with a deadly poison which results in a long, agonizing death by mortification for Gregor.

Tywin Lannister faces huge political ramifications from the results of the trial, especially Gregor's confession. Tywin fears Dorne might join Stannis Baratheon, which could prolong the War of the Five Kings for years. Tywin planned on having Gregor executed to appease House Martell, but needed it to be seen that the King's Justice is the one who carries out the deed, not poison. Tywin commands Grand Maester Pycelle to heal Gregor, but Pycelle's efforts prove fruitless.[28]

A Feast for Crows

Gregor's condition continues to deteriorate. The venom turns the blood in Gregor's body black with gangrene, and any leeches that touch him die instantly. His piss is full of pus, and the venom eats a hole the size of a fist in Gregor's side. His screams of agony are so loud they can be heard in the entire Red Keep, and wake several people up during the night. Qyburn states upon examining him that it is a wonder the man is still alive.[29]

Qyburn brings the insensible and dying Gregor to the dungeons below the Red Keep, where the Mountain's screams can no longer be heard by those above the black cells. Qyburn experiments on Gregor before his impending death, and concludes that the poison was manticore venom thickened with sorcery to draw out the Mountain's dying instead of killing him instantly.[29]

Gregor's skull is to be sent to Sunspear in Dorne as recompense for the deaths of Elia and her children.[30] Qyburn says it took beetles many hours to clean flesh from the bone.[31] Qyburn later mentions working on creating an unbeatable champion for Cersei, and uses several female prisoners in his experiments.[32][33] He has her order a suit of plate armor so thick and heavy that the armorer who created it states that no man is strong enough to move and fight in it.[33]

Meanwhile, in King's Landing, the death of Ser Arys Oakheart in Dorne leaves a vacancy on the Kingsguard. The imprisoned Queen Cersei Lannister requests that the white cloak be brought to Qyburn,[35] who unveils an enormous eight-foot-tall knight encased from head to heel in gleaming white armor.[36]

Other members of the Kingsguard claim that their new brother does not eat, sleep, drink, or even visit the privy. He is never seen without his armor and never removes his helm. He never speaks and it is claimed by Qyburn that he has taken a holy vow of silence until Cersei's innocence is proven and the realm purged of evil. He wears a helm bearing seven plumes in the colors of the Faith, and his cloak of office is clasped with icons in the shape of seven-pointed stars. Though he is introduced as Ser Robert Strong, many in the Red Keep have guessed the identity of the silent giant. Given the skull being sent to Dorne, it is unknown what will be revealed if that helmet is ever removed.[37]

Quotes by Gregor

A man who sees nothing has no use for his eyes, cut them out and give them to your next outrider. Tell him you hope that four eyes might see better than two ... and if not, the man after him will have six.[18]

The flesh mortifies and the wounds ooze pus. Even maggots will not touch such foulness. His convulsions are so violent that I have had to gag him to prevent him from biting off his own tongue. I have cut away as much tissue as I dare, and treated the rot with boiling wine and bread mold, to no avail. The veins in his arms are turning black. When I leeched him, all the leeches died.[28]

She had made the mistake of speaking when Ser Gregor wanted quiet, so the Mountain had smashed her teeth to splinters with a mailed fist and broken her pretty little nose as well. He would have done worse, no doubt, if Cersei had not called him down to King's Landing to face the Red Viper's spear. Jaime would not mourn him.[24]